Culture Ministry and indigenous communities collaborate to develop and protect culture

The Ministry of Culture is strengthening collaboration with indigenous communities and civil society organisations through the development of a database as a commitment to supporting the recognition, protection, fulfilment, and advancement of indigenous peoples’ rights. The strengthening of ‘One Data on Indigenous Peoples’ is motivated by the fact that data on indigenous peoples is currently scattered across various ministries, institutions, and organisations.

‘The Ministry of Culture encourages collaboration between BRWA and AMAN to consolidate and complete data on indigenous peoples. This data can be supplemented by the Ministry of Culture with information on the history, language, knowledge, and cultural aspects of indigenous peoples,’ said Minister of Culture Fadli Zon in a statement confirmed from Jakarta on Thursday.

The collaboration, also carried out with the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) and the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) through this forum, simultaneously commemorates World Indigenous Peoples Day 2026.

The forum was held to build a common understanding of the importance of indigenous peoples’ data as a basis for evidence-based policy-making and development, given that the process of recognising indigenous peoples in Indonesia still faces various challenges.

Data on identity, social and cultural conditions, institutions, and customary territories is needed to strengthen the recognition process as well as to serve as a basis for policy-making.

The Culture Minister invited BRWA and AMAN to collaborate with the government to consolidate and complete data on indigenous peoples regarding history, language, knowledge, and cultural aspects of indigenous peoples.

This is expected to become part of an integrated national cultural data system to support the recognition, protection, services, and advancement of indigenous peoples’ culture, as well as to support the process of recording and designating cultural heritage and mapping the cultural potential of indigenous peoples.

The event also included the signing of a Cooperation Agreement between the Directorate General of Cultural and Tradition Protection of the Ministry of Culture and the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) as a concrete step in strengthening the collaborative provision, exchange, utilisation, and updating of indigenous peoples’ data.